Inter-country Adoption: Practical Experiences

Synopsis

Over the past twenty years, the growing shortage of adoptable infants in Britain and the United States has resulted in a number of couples acquiring their family from abroad, yet the effort needed to acquire such a child from another country is enormous. So what exactly are the costs, hazards and emotional difficulties involved, and why do some couples feel that this is their only chance of becoming adoptive parents? Inter-Country Adoption charts the experiences of eight couples who between them have adopted eleven children from South America, India and Sri Lanka who ranged in age from four months to seven years. The main emphasis of these first-hand accounts is on the events leading up to the decision to adopt from abroad and on the obstacle course which followed and which involved dealing with the authorities in Britain and in the child's country of origin. The final two chapters are by an academic social worker and a parliamentary campaigner who examine the legal and ethical considerations of inter-country adoption.